Sunday, August 7, 2011

Gearing Up For The Year

I still haven't decided how my students will store their books in my classroom and my to-do list is getting longer and longer. On Thursday evening my mom arrives and she will stay through Tuesday, helping me set up my classroom!

As I begin planning our first week activities and lessons, this quote from the Daily 5 book is sticking with me:

"It is the explicitly teaching and practicing of behaviors that sets the Daily Five apart from the other management systems we have tried over the years." (pg. 6)

I think that the explicit teaching and practicing of behaviors is important throughout all aspects of classroom life. I have been seeing a trainer this summer in my effort to get in shape. Throughout our hour long training sessions my trainer models how the exercise should look and as I am doing the exercise she makes corrections to what I am doing. The first time we complete an activity we go slowly, not worrying about repetitions, but worrying about doing the exercise correctly. Even if we have done an exercise before, my trainer will often still model it for me, as that assists me in doing the exercise correctly.

This has been an important reminder to me in the importance of explicit teaching and practicing of behaviors.

What are some creative ways that you explicitly teach and practice behaviors at the beginning of the year? What procedures do you make sure to teach on the very first day?


1 comment:

  1. While I don't have a response to this right now, I also am starting to really reflect on the explicit teaching of behaviors today. While I believe most teachers realize this, how you start from Day 1 is how your students start to understand their role and the behaviors you expect.

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts as you begin to set up your classroom this year.

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